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+ <h1>The Mesa 3D Graphics Library</h1>
+</div>
+
+<iframe src="contents.html"></iframe>
+<div class="content">
<center>
<h1>Mesa Frequently Asked Questions</h1>
-Last updated: 17 November 2004
+Last updated: 20 September 2012
</center>
<br>
-<a name="part1">
-</a><h1><a name="part1">1. High-level Questions and Answers</a></h1>
+<h1 id="part1">1. High-level Questions and Answers</h1>
-<h2><a name="part1">1.1 What is Mesa?</a></h2>
+<h2>1.1 What is Mesa?</h2>
<p>
-<a name="part1">Mesa is an open-source implementation of the OpenGL specification.
+Mesa is an open-source implementation of the OpenGL specification.
OpenGL is a programming library for writing interactive 3D applications.
-See the </a><a href="http://www.opengl.org/">OpenGL website</a> for more
+See the <a href="http://www.opengl.org/">OpenGL website</a> for more
information.
</p>
<p>
-Mesa 5.x supports the OpenGL 1.4 specification.
+Mesa 9.x supports the OpenGL 3.1 specification.
</p>
<h2>1.2 Does Mesa support/use graphics hardware?</h2>
<p>
-Yes. Specifically, Mesa serves as the OpenGL core for the open-source
-XFree86/DRI OpenGL drivers. See the <a href="http://dri.sf.net/">DRI
-website</a> for more information.
-</p>
-<p>
-There have been other hardware drivers for Mesa over the years (such as
-the 3Dfx Glide/Voodoo driver, an old S3 driver, etc) but the DRI drivers
-are the modern ones.
+Yes. Specifically, Mesa serves as the OpenGL core for the open-source DRI
+drivers for X.org.
</p>
+<ul>
+ <li>See the <a href="http://dri.freedesktop.org/">DRI website</a>
+ for more information.</li>
+ <li>See <a href="http://intellinuxgraphics.org">intellinuxgraphics.org</a>
+ for more information about Intel drivers.</li>
+ <li>See <a href="http://nouveau.freedesktop.org">nouveau.freedesktop.org</a>
+ for more information about Nouveau drivers.</li>
+ <li>See <a href="http://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature">www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature</a>
+ for more information about Radeon drivers.</li>
+</ul>
<h2>1.3 What purpose does Mesa serve today?</h2>
<p>
Still, Mesa serves at least these purposes:
</p>
<ul>
-<li>Mesa is used as the core of the open-source XFree86/DRI hardware drivers.
+<li>Mesa is used as the core of the open-source X.org DRI
+ hardware drivers.
</li>
<li>Mesa is quite portable and allows OpenGL to be used on systems
that have no other OpenGL solution.
</ul>
-<h2>1.4 What's the difference between"Stand-Alone" Mesa and the DRI drivers?</h2>
+<h2>1.4 What's the difference between "Stand-Alone" Mesa and the DRI drivers?</h2>
<p>
<em>Stand-alone Mesa</em> is the original incarnation of Mesa.
-On systems running the X Window System, it does all its rendering through
-the Xlib API.
+On systems running the X Window System it does all its rendering through
+the Xlib API:
+</p>
<ul>
<li>The GLX API is supported, but it's really just an emulation of the
real thing.
<li>The OpenGL library, libGL.so, contains everything (the programming API,
the GLX functions and all the rendering code).
</ul>
-</p>
<p>
Alternately, Mesa acts as the core for a number of OpenGL hardware drivers
within the DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure):
<h2>1.5 How do I upgrade my DRI installation to use a new Mesa release?</h2>
<p>
-You don't! A copy of the Mesa source code lives inside the XFree86/DRI source
-tree and gets compiled into the individual DRI driver modules.
-If you try to install Mesa over an XFree86/DRI installation, you'll lose
-hardware rendering (because stand-alone Mesa's libGL.so is different than
-the XFree86 libGL.so).
-</p>
-<p>
-The DRI developers will incorporate the latest release of Mesa into the
-DRI drivers when the time is right.
-</p>
-<p>
-To upgrade, either look for a new release of <a href="http://www.xfree86.org"
-target="_parent">XFree86</a> or visit the
-<a href="http://dri.sf.net" target="_parent">DRI website</a> to see
-if there's newer drivers.
+This wasn't easy in the past.
+Now, the DRI drivers are included in the Mesa tree and can be compiled
+separately from the X server.
+Just follow the Mesa <a href="install.html">compilation instructions</a>.
</p>
<h2>1.6 Are there other open-source implementations of OpenGL?</h2>
<p>
-Yes, SGI's <a href="http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/index.html"
-target="_parent">
+Yes, SGI's <a href="http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/index.html">
OpenGL Sample Implemenation (SI)</a> is available.
The SI was written during the time that OpenGL was originally designed.
Unfortunately, development of the SI has stagnated.
</p>
<p>
-<a href="http://ogl-es.sourceforge.net" target="_parent">Vincent</a> is
+<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ogl-es/">Vincent</a> is
an open-source implementation of OpenGL ES for mobile devices.
<p>
-<a href="http://www.dsbox.com/minigl.html" target="_parent">miniGL</a>
+<a href="http://www.dsbox.com/minigl.html">miniGL</a>
is a subset of OpenGL for PalmOS devices.
<p>
-<a href="http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/TinyGL/"
-target="_parent">TinyGL</a> is a subset of OpenGL.
+<a href="http://bellard.org/TinyGL/">TinyGL</a>
+is a subset of OpenGL.
</p>
<p>
-<a href="http://softgl.studierstube.org/" target="_parent">SoftGL</a>
+<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/softgl/">SoftGL</a>
is an OpenGL subset for mobile devices.
</p>
<p>
-<a href="http://chromium.sourceforge.net/" target="_parent">Chromium</a>
+<a href="http://chromium.sourceforge.net/">Chromium</a>
isn't a conventional OpenGL implementation (it's layered upon OpenGL),
but it does export the OpenGL API. It allows tiled rendering, sort-last
rendering, etc.
</p>
+<p>
+<a href="http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/361/36173.html">ClosedGL</a>
+is an OpenGL subset library for TI graphing calculators.
+</p>
+
<p>
There may be other open OpenGL implementations, but Mesa is the most
popular and feature-complete.
<br>
-<a name="part2">
-</a><h1><a name="part2">2. Compilation and Installation Problems</a></h1>
+<h1 id="part2">2. Compilation and Installation Problems</h1>
-<h2><a name="part2">2.1 What's the easiest way to install Mesa?</a></h2>
+<h2>2.1 What's the easiest way to install Mesa?</h2>
<p>
-<a name="part2">If you're using a Linux-based system, your distro CD most likely already
+If you're using a Linux-based system, your distro CD most likely already
has Mesa packages (like RPM or DEB) which you can easily install.
-</a></p>
-
-
-<h2><a name="part2">2.2 Running <code>configure; make</code> doesn't Work</a></h2>
-<p>
-Mesa no longer supports GNU autoconf/automake. Why?
-<ul>
-<li>It seemed to seldom work on anything but Linux
-<li>The config files were hard to maintain and hard to understand
-<li>libtool caused a lot of grief
-</ul>
-
-<p>
-Now, Mesa again uses a conventional Makefile system (as it did originally).
-Basically, each Makefile in the tree includes one of the configuration
-files from the config/ directory.
-The config files specify all the variables for a variety of popular systems.
</p>
-<h2><a name="part2">2.3 I get undefined symbols such as bgnpolygon, v3f, etc...</a></h2>
+<h2>2.2 I get undefined symbols such as bgnpolygon, v3f, etc...</h2>
<p>
-<a name="part2">You're application is written in IRIS GL, not OpenGL.
+You're application is written in IRIS GL, not OpenGL.
IRIS GL was the predecessor to OpenGL and is a different thing (almost)
entirely.
Mesa's not the solution.
-</a></p>
+</p>
-<h2><a name="part2">2.4 Where is the GLUT library?</a></h2>
+<h2>2.3 Where is the GLUT library?</h2>
<p>
-<a name="part2">GLUT (OpenGL Utility Toolkit) is in the separate MesaDemos-x.y.z.tar.gz file.
-If you don't already have GLUT installed, you should grab the MesaDemos
-package and unpack it before compiling Mesa.
-</a></p>
+GLUT (OpenGL Utility Toolkit) is no longer in the separate MesaGLUT-x.y.z.tar.gz file.
+If you don't already have GLUT installed, you should grab
+<a href="http://freeglut.sourceforge.net/">freeglut</a>.
+</p>
+<h2>2.4 Where is the GLw library?</h2>
+<p>
+GLw (OpenGL widget library) is now available from a separate <a href="http://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/glw/">git repository</a>. Unless you're using very old Xt/Motif applications with OpenGL, you shouldn't need it.
+</p>
+
-<h2><a name="part2">2.5 What's the proper place for the libraries and headers?</a></h2>
+<h2>2.5 What's the proper place for the libraries and headers?</h2>
<p>
-<a name="part2">On Linux-based systems you'll want to follow the
-</a><a href="http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/ABI/index.html"
-target="_parent">Linux ABI</a> standard.
+On Linux-based systems you'll want to follow the
+<a href="http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/ABI/index.html">Linux ABI</a> standard.
Basically you'll want the following:
</p>
<ul>
</li><li>/usr/lib/libGL.so.1 - a symlink to libGL.so.1.xyz
</li><li>/usr/lib/libGL.so.xyz - the actual OpenGL/Mesa library. xyz denotes the
Mesa version number.
-</li><li>/usr/lib/libGLU.so - a symlink to libGLU.so.1
-</li><li>/usr/lib/libGLU.so.1 - a symlink to libGLU.so.1.3.xyz
-</li><li>/usr/lib/libGLU.so.xyz - the OpenGL Utility library. xyz denotes the Mesa
-version number.
</li></ul>
<p>
-After installing XFree86 and the DRI drivers, some of these files
+After installing X.org and the DRI drivers, some of these files
may be symlinks into the /usr/X11R6/ tree.
</p>
<p>
<br>
-<a name="part3">
-</a><h1><a name="part3">3. Runtime / Rendering Problems</a></h1>
+<h1 id="part3">3. Runtime / Rendering Problems</h1>
-<h2><a name="part3">3.1 Rendering is slow / why isn't my graphics hardware being used?</a></h2>
+<h2>3.1 Rendering is slow / why isn't my graphics hardware being used?</h2>
<p>
-<a name="part3">Stand-alone Mesa (downloaded as MesaLib-x.y.z.tar.gz) doesn't have any
+Stand-alone Mesa (downloaded as MesaLib-x.y.z.tar.gz) doesn't have any
support for hardware acceleration (with the exception of the 3DFX Voodoo
driver).
-</a></p>
+</p>
<p>
-<a name="part3">What you really want is a DRI or NVIDIA (or another vendor's OpenGL) driver
+What you really want is a DRI or NVIDIA (or another vendor's OpenGL) driver
for your particular hardware.
-</a></p>
+</p>
<p>
-<a name="part3">You can run the <code>glxinfo</code> program to learn about your OpenGL
+You can run the <code>glxinfo</code> program to learn about your OpenGL
library.
Look for the GL_VENDOR and GL_RENDERER values.
That will identify who's OpenGL library you're using and what sort of
hardware it has detected.
-</a></p>
+</p>
<p>
-<a name="part3">If your DRI-based driver isn't working, go to the
-</a><a href="http://dri.sf.net/" target="_parent">DRI website</a> for trouble-shooting information.
+If your DRI-based driver isn't working, go to the
+<a href="http://dri.freedesktop.org/">DRI website</a> for trouble-shooting information.
</p>
<p>
Make sure the ratio of the far to near clipping planes isn't too great.
Look
-<a href="http://www.sgi.com/software/opengl/advanced97/notes/node18.html"
-target="_parent">
-here</a> for details.
+<a href="http://www.opengl.org/resources/faq/technical/depthbuffer.htm#0040">here</a>
+for details.
</p>
<p>
Mesa uses a 16-bit depth buffer by default which is smaller and faster
will fix the problem.
</p>
+<h2>3.6 How can I change the maximum framebuffer size in Mesa's
+<tt>swrast</tt> backend?</h2>
+<p>
+These can be overridden by using the <tt>--with-max-width</tt> and
+<tt>--with-max-height</tt> options. The two need not be equal.
+</p><p>
+Do note that Mesa uses these values to size some internal buffers,
+so increasing these sizes will cause Mesa to require additional
+memory. Furthermore, increasing these limits beyond <tt>4096</tt>
+may introduce rasterization artifacts; see the leading comments in
+<tt>src/mesa/swrast/s_tritemp.h</tt>.
+</p>
+
<br>
<br>
-<a name="part4">
-</a><h1><a name="part4">4. Developer Questions</a></h1>
+<h1 id="part4">4. Developer Questions</h1>
-<h2><a name="part4">4.1 How can I contribute?</a></h2>
+<h2>4.1 How can I contribute?</h2>
<p>
-<a name="part4">First, join the Mesa3d-dev mailing list. That's where Mesa development
-is discussed.
-</a></p>
+First, join the <a href="lists.html">mesa-dev mailing list</a>.
+That's where Mesa development is discussed.
+</p>
<p>
-<a name="part4">The </a><a href="http://www.opengl.org/developers/documentation/specs.html" target="_parent">
+The <a href="http://www.opengl.org/documentation">
OpenGL Specification</a> is the bible for OpenGL implemention work.
You should read it.
</p>
</p>
-<h2>4.3 Why isn't GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc implemented in Mesa and/or the DRI drivers?</h2>
+<h2>4.3 Why isn't GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc implemented in Mesa?</h2>
<p>
-The <a href="http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/registry/EXT/texture_compression_s3tc.txt" target="_parent">specification for the extension</a>
+The <a href="http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/registry/EXT/texture_compression_s3tc.txt">specification for the extension</a>
indicates that there are intellectual property (IP) and/or patent issues
to be dealt with.
</p>
algorithms).
</p>
<p>
-Until we can get official permission to do so, this extension will not
-be implemented in Mesa.
+In the mean time, a 3rd party <a href="http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/S3TC">
+plug-in library</a> is available.
</p>
-
+</div>
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